REPROMOTION

In Repromotion, the first film by the artist Jan De Cock, we see a new perspective opening up in his work. The title refers to the exhibition of the same name held at Bozar in summer 2009, which, together with the artist’s studio in Brussels, provides the backdrop for a surprising tableau. Sometimes playful, then restrained and observant, De Cock – alternating his position from behind to in front of the camera – appears in a world of his own making. In his prismatic installation work, formally indebted to the modernist and constructivist idioms, De Cock has already shown himself to be a master in making the eye an instrument. He now adds a through-view to what was a view. His tightly designed spatial modules, collages of chipboard and photomontage, interact with tracking shots which literally offer a view through his geometrically formal structures, which are commonly but unjustly considered static. The filming not only articulates the plane within the plane, but also breathes life and vitality into the whole construction. Visitors to the exhibition are captured in penetrating close-ups. Children talk spontaneously about what they have seen and do drawings and take photos. Eagles and owls fly around freely under the highly concentrated gaze of a young archer. De Cock’s work, which he himself once characterised as ‘film montage in space’, has always made reference to film. Now he has plunged into the flow. Repromotion, which can best be described as a filmic ‘Jan De Cock by Jan De Cock’ is the odd man out in the eight-part documentary series called Vormgevers (‘Designers’) on the Canvas television channel.